Wednesday, December 28, 2011

After a month off my Etsy shop is once again up and running! The Christmas Craft Sales Gallery I took part in was a success and I'm already planning new bags for the Easter sale in April. I'm thinking bright yellow, light orange, leaf green, pale and bright pinks! But for now I'm treating myself to a late Christmas present and am currently working on a black little purse for myself. I free-handed the whole embroidery and proves the old Finnish proverb "well planned is half done" completely inaccurate.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

I still vaguely remember what it was like to be a little girl on Christmas. Sitting by the tree in my finest frock, waiting for Santa to call over. It's truly a blessing to live in Finland. Why? Because on Christmas Eve Santa pays you a visit. He doesn't just sneak in while you're asleep, oh no, he actually comes to meet you in your own home and personally hands you all your precious pressies. BRILLIANT! Mind that, it can be rather scary. Specially if you are a girl of five. You've spent the whole day waiting for him, but when he actually rings the door bell, steps over the treshold and with the lowest voice you've ever heard booms if there are any nice children in the house, all you want to do is run under your bed and forget all about Christmas.

But no, your parents invite the stranger in red to enter in. They offer him a seat by the tree and while he settles in you try your best not to scream. If you're lucky, he'll offer to sing you a christmas carol, which is perfect because it'll buy you time to get your nerves in order while the old man croons. But then, if he sings, you gotta sing back. Darn! (Hadn't I practiced this stupid song in day care, how come I can't remember the words now. Man, I gotta pee. Wish he'd give the presents already and bail.) The power of song however soon takes over and you feel more at ease after melodically abusing "Here comes Santa Claus".

Soon as you've started getting comfortable with the presence of Old Saint Nick, he starts handing the presents. And you are reminded of why you had been waiting for his visit to begin with. PRESSIES! If you are really lucky, he'll got something in store for you to make the whole torture worth it. If I were a little girl of five or so, discovering a cute pink bag under the wrapping paper would totally make me appreciate the horrors my parents put me through in the name of Christmas.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Since the reciever of this beautiful bag has already pre-inspected the work before me wrapping it up for Christmas, I feel free to publish a picture of it here too. Like mentioned earlier in a related post, I struggled with the theme for months. But it turned out magnificient if I may say so myself. I'm so pleased with the design I'm planning to make more of these, have already recieved one order. Only thing missing are the purse frames. I only bought one because I wanted to try it out first. But now I can't find them anywhere anymore!

If anyone happens to know where can I get great value purse frames, please help out :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

There just isn't anything finer than a nice pink bag :)
Loving the mistletoe-theme so much right now I even combined it with a hot pink bag. And it totally works!Who says Christmas can't be pink?

I like the subtle interpretation of the mistletoe here as it's not too literal. I think I see it now as a mistletoe as I'm so focused on Christmas and all things Christmassy, but I believe come spring I'll just see it as a pretty pink bag with leaves and white pearls. Though hopefully it'll be sold well before spring :)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Ok. Wow. I'm bit blown away at the moment. As mentioned earlier I'm taking part in local craft shop organized by the crafters' association in my new home town. It's a three week event running from the 1st to the 23rd of December and takes place in a beautiful old wooden house downtown.

Yesterday I found out that after the shop had been open for less than two days they had already sold three of my bags. Wo-hoo! Now the problem is that I only have five bags left to be sold. Gotta get crackin and strike while the iron is hot! GOTTA MAKE MORE BAGS!! :)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

I've almost finished making this beautiful black and white bag, but since it's going in Santa's bag I don't want to publish pictures of the finished bag just yet. I simply had to share my thoughts on the process this point because I'm super-excited with the way it's turning out!

The process of me making bags is truly a slow one. After knitting and fulling the bags they might mull in the cupboard and in the back of my mind for months, waiting for inspiration to knock me off my feet before I start working on the embroidery. This particular piece was knitted end of the summer and has been a troublesome one. Inspiration had nudged me several times but not hard enough, and my feeble attempts to grasp the little scraps of revelation and turn them into embroidery had miserably failed until I gave up.

I'm not a bona fide perfectionist, but inspiration does need to whack me in the head good time for me to actually be able to produce something to be really proud of. And eventually it did! With the holidays approaching and all things christmassy going through my head the picture of a beautiful wreath appeared before my eyes. It was if the heavens would have opened and choirs of angels sung, trumpets sound and a halo materialized above my head when the inspiration struck. Heureka! OMG I can't wait to show you all how it turns out!